A Free Press Must Prevail

This chapter covers the growth, development, and challenges facing UNC in the last decades of the 20th century, and the pressures on the student newspaper, both financially and ideologically. The Daily Tar Heel came under constant fire for being too politically left, or liberal, even though there were some more conservative editors and columnists. Attempts were made to defund the paper, and/or shut it down, including two lawsuits. The growing conservatism of the student body is covered, along with the rise of the New Right nationally. The Black Student Movement, the Women’s Movement, and the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement (later LGBTQ) are topics debated heavily on campus and in the student newspaper. Importance of basketball is discussed, as the UNC tem becomes a national power. As the paper turns 100 years old, a plan is developed to again take it off-campus as a private non-profit organization.

Print News and Raise Hell

This chapter covers the tumultuous 1960s at UNC and beyond, and at the Daily Tar Heel. The 1960 Dixie Classic, UNC’s most infamous sports scandal, is discussed, as is a 1961 speech on campus by President John F. Kennedy. The Civil Rights Movement is covered in detail, as Chapel Hill was a center for protest; the student newspaper took on a new activist role during this time, sending reporters across the South to report on Civil Rights events. The infamous Speaker Ban Law is examined in detail, 1963-1968. In 1963 UNC became completely co-educational, and the changes on campus and the issues facing women students is explored, including the role of the sexual revolution, access to birth control, and the fight over legalizing abortion. The major shift in state politics, away from one-party Democratic rule is discussed, and the rise of conservative politician Jesse Helms, who used UNC and the Daily Tar Heel as examples of extreme liberalism and permissiveness to help build his political base. The Vietnam War, the 1969 UNC Foodworker’s Strike, gay rights, and contributions of later renowned cartoonist Jeff MacNelly on the newspaper are other topics in this chapter

Introduction

The introduction explains the role of the Daily Tar Heel, the UNC student newspaper, in the broader context of the university and the state of North Carolina. It outlines the key arguments and themes in the book: academic freedom, freedom of speech and press; the ideological evolution of the university; the political push-pull over progressivism and conservatism in the state; and the role of big-time athletics at a top-tier research institution.

Crack-Brained Professors and Baby Radicals

This chapter chronicles the student newspaper’s evolution to an on-campus daily publication in the 1920s, and how it rapidly professionalized and became both a critical laboratory for aspiring journalists, and helped to push for the creation of a school of journalism at UNC. The chapter also discusses causes the paper fought for or against, including defeat of the 1925 anti-evolution teaching bill in the state legislature, promotion of labor unions and rights in North Carolina’s mills and factories, and freedom for the students to have speakers on campus of all political persuasions. The chapter examines the universities growing reputation as a liberal institution, both in the classical sense and politically, and the beginnings of state politicians and media to question these issues, most notably David Clark. The first attempt to racially integrate the school, by Pauli Murray, is examined. Other topics covered include the Great Depression, the major university cheating scandal of 1936, the burning of all issues of a campus humor magazine considered indecent in 1939, and the anti-war sentiment at UNC, 1939-1941.

Epilogue

A brief epilogue discusses the Daily Tar Heel’s move off campus, issues over recent decades including the athletic/sports scandal, and ponders the future of print journalism and the student newspaper in the digital age.

The Truth in Eight-Point Type

This chapter takes the university and the student newspaper through World War II, the post-war boom, and the 1950s. Major topics include the Navy Pre-Flight Training School on campus, university expansion after the war, politics, race, and the growth of the intercollegiate athletic program. The role of university president Frank Porter Graham is examined in detail. The effects of the anti-Communist Red Scare and McCarthyism at UNC are discussed, including the national attention focused on students such as Junius Scales. The fight over desegregation, the Civil Rights Movement, and the role of editors including Charles Kuralt in this issue are covered. Problems with modern intercollegiate athletics at UNC, beginning after World War II, are examined in some detail.

Official Organ of the Athletic Association

This chapter discusses the pedagogical and institutional history of UNC from founding in 1789 through the Civil War, and the significant changes made following Reconstruction, which formed the basis for the modern research institution. The birth of the student newspaper, the Tar Heel, is discussed, along with early operations and editors, including Frank Porter Graham and Thomas Wolfe. The paper’s initial function to promote the new student activity of intercollegiate athletics, first football and baseball, and later basketball, is examined. The university’s growth during the early twentieth century and following World War I are discussed, along with early issues involving women and African Americans.